Can we all just get along?
Partisanship in Congress reflects serious philosophical disagreements.
Kudos to local U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, an Urbana Republican, and U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, for holding a town hall meeting Sunday in Champaign to discuss the importance of both parties working together amicably on Capitol Hill.
Both men are, of course, correct in their assertion that it's important to listen to opposing views and work hard to find common ground. Obviously, it's no secret that Democrats and Republicans in the nation's capital are at loggerheads and that the poisonous atmosphere will probably get worse as the 2012 election draws ever closer.
But let's not get too carried away by the notion that the problems in our country today are a manifestation of political partisanship, that all would be well if Republicans and Democrats would just cooperate with each other.
Johnson and Murphy may have been singing "Kumbaya," but the discord on Capitol Hill reflects serious philosophical disagreements about the best way to address complicated issues.
These differences, no doubt, are accentuated by personality conflicts and a desire to gain a political advantage, however temporary. But it's the policy disputes that are driving the political discord.
Here's just one example.
President Obama and many Democrats assert another big spending program will help stimulate the economy into a stronger recovery. Republicans contend that Obama's roughly $800 billion stimulus program passed in 2009 was largely a failure and that another one not only won't work but also will add to our already burdensome national debt.
How do the two parties split that difference? They don't disagree on the size of a stimulus, they disagree on the entire premise of another stimulus.
That's a big gap to cover by just playing nice, and the gulf is reflected by divided government — Democrats elected with Obama in 2008 and Republicans elected in 2010. The voters who will have to settle the disagreement in next year's elections.
I completely concur with this editorial commentary. They do need to start working together.
They all need to agree on certain things, and I think they do:
1. We are in debt, and the debt is growing and that is unsustainable
2. The source of income for our nation is TAXES, nothing more, nothing less. We either need to raise taxes, or increase the tax base in large measure.
3. We were formed as a nation to get away from aristocracy, which means the wealthy controlling the masses, and yet we are essentially there again - that needs to change.
We need to cut spending where it's not necessary. We need to raise taxes where necessary. We need to stop letting money be a deciding factor in politics. We need to open the conversation to give a little, get a little. (I.E. The Dems say "we'll cut spending by 100 billion" then the Republicans need to agree to "find a 100 billion tax increase or loophole closure"). No more of this "we want this and don't want to give back"... it's killing our nation.
I want to see BOTH sides work together - set aside the big ideological issues and concentrate on the pieces that they can find compromise on. Our nation, and in all reality, our planet, depend far too much on the American worker, and the American dollar. We are still the most productive nation in the world, and yet a good portion of our "workforce" are not working.
While some might see it as "socialist" or "over regulation" - CEO's getting 30% raises on their 100 million dollar salary's while so many are out of work makes no sense.
If a company that makes product X has enough money to give a man a 30 million dollar raise, they can hire 6000 workers at 50k per year (rough, very rough, figures).
Those 6k workers than would create the following positive actions on our economy:
a) contribute more to the tax base (as income, we pay a higher percentage as worker bees, than those who get money via capital gains which are taxed at a much much lower rate).
b) purchase goods that currently are not being purchased as heavily (a guy with no job won't buy your cell phone Verizon or your TV Sony).
c) In turn, when they start increasing that demand, Verizon and Sony hire more people to cover the increased demand.
d) Those people in turn start purchasing from the first company mentioned, and buying product X.
It's a snowball, but in the RIGHT direction.
Because we don't (or can't, or shouldn't) mandate that corporations and company's act responsibly to improve our entire economy, its' up to forward thinking CEO's, and company's to work together to do this - or it will be up to our government to regulate (which none of us want, in all reality).
I know it's simplified, but the reality is our nation's source of income is taxes, and it's people are the taxpayers. Our huge debt is there because we have decreased our tax base heavily, and increased our social spending heavily. We need to reverse both trends. Once we have balanced those equations, we can discuss things like "lowering taxes and cutting government expenses" seriously - or else the Occupy and Tea Party movements will both get more and more radical (and possibly dangerous) as their anger will continue to rise. We need Americans working, buying, and paying taxes.
It sounds good and it would be right under normal circumstances. The problem is, the democrats always cry partizanship when they are the underdogs, but when they are in control look out! They have taken this country so far to the left and when somebody tries to stop them they raise hell. No way this government needs an unheard of amount of money to do the peoples business. Do some thinking, what is a trillion? What does that really look like? Bypartiznaship is when a republican caves in. (You hear me Rep.Johnson?) How will more stimulus help? You can not take money out of the economy to fuel the economy! All that is , is socialistic wealth redistribution.
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